Hale Irwin, NASTD's 2003 president and telecommunications manager for the Vermont Department of Information and Innovation, said that a year-long series of focus groups created a new five-year goal for the organization, one that will build membership by reaching out to a wider field of telecommunications and information technology professionals.
"My focus has been to develop the mission and revamp the organization so that we have a roadmap for the next five years," he said. Both vendors and state telecom officials participated in the focus groups. "We couldn't do anything for our states without the vendor community," he added. "We rely on them."
Along with increasing the organization's membership base, NASTD officials intend to become "the premier resource for information on technology and telecommunications," actively collaborating with "common issue" organizations.
Irwin said that, over the past year, members have tackled some specific challenges. "I think there have been a lot of states, including my own, that have been paying attention to business continuity. And there is more of a recognition of the need for security," he said. "Now, the first concern is really with security."
Vermont, he added, like many other states, is looking at an enterprise communications network. "In the past, we had a wide area network that went to the door of agencies and from there they did their own thing," he explained. "We want to take that further, as do a lot of other states."
According to Irwin, NASTD can be a channel to help states with similar projects. "It really is a group that prevents a lot of reinventing of the wheel," he said. "We have to be able to share ideas."
Irwin hands the president's gavel over to Carl Hotvedt, chief of the Network Technology Services Bureau for Montana. Hotvedt said he will carry forward the direction set during Hale's tenure, strengthening the organization and expanding its membership to mirror the realities of telecommunications in 21st-century government. "It seems the pace of change is escalating in new technologies, new services and expectations," Hotvedt said. "We've seen more requirement to support taxpayers 24/7/365. But most of our services are built to support the traditional business day."
This increased demand will lead to a more broad-based NASTD membership. "We are not just telecom directors any longer," he observed. In addition, Hotvedt said the industry will have to step forward. "We are working with the vendor community to be sure they can support the changes we are being asked to provide," he said. "Like welfare benefits electronically -- this is not a traditional state application." Social service applications include issues such as privacy, security and access. "All of this has to be designed and engineered in a way that is reliable and available 24/7/365," he added. Collaboration between the public and private sector is an essential element of NASTD's strategy, according to Hotvedt.
"NASTD has evolved from being a telecom organization to a technical organization," he said. "We support a wide variety of services and areas of expertise that include telephony, computing, security, networking and management. Our focus is to find a way to get that message out to the states and vendor community in the coming year."
More than 30 states of NASTD's 48-state membership roster were represented at the annual conference. There will be several regional meetings prior to the 2004 conference planned for August 21-26 in Providence, R.I.
